1 Before you use it
What it is
The other knee rule, and a tighter one. Applies only when the mechanism is blunt trauma or a fall. Image if the patient is under 12 or over 50, or cannot weight-bear four steps in the department.
When to reach for it
As the companion to Ottawa on any traumatic knee. Useful on placement mainly as a reasoning exercise — two validated rules disagreeing on the same patient is the clearest way to show a student that a decision rule is a tool, not a verdict.
Patterns it serves · 2
2 Giving it
Scoring
Not scored. Mechanism gate first — no blunt trauma or fall, the rule does not apply. Then any criterion positive → x-ray.
What it doesn’t measure
Non-traumatic knee pain entirely. The mechanism gate excludes it. And like Ottawa, it says nothing about soft tissue.
3 Reading the score
Interpreting it
Fewer criteria than Ottawa and a mechanism gate, so it is generally the more specific of the two — meaning it sends fewer people for films. No verified comparative figure is carried in our library and none is printed here; Seaberg et al. later compared the two rules directly (1998).
Teach both, and teach why two exist: they trade sensitivity against the number of films ordered, and different departments have picked different points on that trade.
Is the change real?
Student trap. Applying it to a knee that swelled up over two days with no trauma. The mechanism gate is the first question, not an afterthought.
Official source: null. We don't host the form.
This is a learning tool. It does not diagnose patients and does not replace your clinical educator.
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